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The New Catholic Plan to Fight Marriage Equality

Written by scott on September 5th, 2013

The United State Conference of Catholic Bishops has released a new set of strategies from its Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage about how to argue against marriage equality. Posted in a seven-part series on the Bishops’ Marriage Unique for a Reason blog is a series of tips for talking about same-sex marriage in the wake of the Supreme Court’s rulings overturning the Defense of Marriage Act and allowing California’s Proposition 8 to fall.

Here’s a look at the rhetorical tricks and strategies the Church hopes to utilize and why they won’t work:

Define Marriage As Heterosexuals-Only

The first tip offered in the series suggests that Catholics should simply assert a definition for the word “marriage” that is heterosexuals-only. That way, they can supposedly reframe the debate around what’s good about marriage for straight couples without sounding discriminatory:

In our conversations and communications, we must insist on bringing the debate back to the fundamental question: What is marriage? A phrase we use in our work is: “Treating different things differently is not discrimination.” We can make a case for the uniqueness of marriage between a man and a woman by pointing out that only a man and a woman can form a one-flesh communion and can give themselves fully to each other, including on a bodily level. Only a man and a woman are capable of welcoming new life into the world, even though there are times, sadly, when this doesn’t happen for reasons beyond their control. And so forth.

1 Comments so far ↓

nobody is forcing the catholic church or any other. religious. body to marry anyone…their beliefs are peculiar. to their religion….as americans not all of. us have ANY such notions..I am athiest and expect these christians to stay the hell out of my business..tell your own flock to follow your rules..keep off my butt and I will keep off yours